| Julian Barnes, one of the most outstanding, interesting and challenging novelists now writing in the English language, is often considered as one of the three giants in contemporary British literary circle, the other two being Martin Amis and Ian McEwan. As a prosperous and prominent writer, Barnes has received not a few literary awards and honors at home and abroad including the prestigious award the Man Booker Prize in2011. Due to the originality and experimental-ness of form and the richness and profundity of content in his works, Barnes during his more than thirty years’writing has won a variety of names, such as "a highly original writer,""a master of craftsman,""a metafictionist who challenges literary orthodoxies,""a natural satirist,""a novelist of ideas," and "a novelist-philosopher." However, because of the flexibility and versatility of his writing style, Barnes is esteemed as "the chameleon of British letters" and as such the specificity of his work taken as a whole is a strong "sense of heterogeneity." As to formal experimentation, his works often defy categorization, blurring the boundaries of genres by means of using such postmodernist techniques as parody, irony, collage or textual hybridization; as to thematic exploration, his novels explore different areas of human experience, ranging from personal growth, love, marriage to gender, identity, war, religion, race, history, philosophy and politics. Due to the heterogeneous feature of his writing, there are up to now few comprehensive and systematic studies on Barnes, although many an article, review and essay about his certain work could be searched out. In China, Barnes study is in a budding state, with no thesis turning up yet. This provides a great opportunity for this dissertation to study Barnes, especially the postmodern historical writing in his fiction.Although critics observe that every book by Barnes is "a new departure" and his whole writing is typical of heterogeneity, a close reading of Barnes’s works shows an acute historical consciousness permeating in his writing, behind which there is his sharp deconstructive thought. As one of "the golden generation of British novelists," Barnes, like Martin Amis, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Graham Swift, lives under the shadow of contemporary historical reality such as the decline of the British Empire and the political conflict of the Cold War, and in the meantime is affected by various isms of postmodern culture and thoughts. This no doubt makes a great imprint on Barnes’s writing, rendering his fiction an acute historical consciousness and the typical features of postmodernism. As to Barnes’s concern for history, it is evident that in his work there is often such a character who is either a history professor (Before She Met Me; A History of the World in101/2Chapters; England, England; The Sense of an Ending), or a historian (England, England), or a person extremely interested in historical figures (Flaubert’s Parrot), or the novel itself is a re-writing or parody of history (A History of the World in101/2Chapters; The Porcupine; England, England and Arthur&George). Not coincidentally, a good many comments about history or the views of history turn up in Barnes’s writing. More specifically, Barnes often expresses his view about the nature of history, therefore he writes:"Nothing was set in concrete:that was the nature of history;" and he also calls into question history or historical truth epistemologically:"history is merely another literary genre;""The story of a louse may be as fine as the history of Alexander the Great—everything depends upon the execution;" still Barnes interrogates history ontologically:"History doesn’t relate;""The history of the world? Just voices echoing in the dark; images that burn for a few centuries and then fade; stories, old stories that sometimes seem to overlap; strange links, impertinent connections;" and his writing also foregrounds the ideological attribute of history:"History isn’t what happened. History is just what historians tell us;""one of the central problems of history... the fact that we need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us." Because of this, Barnes is often called a "near-historian" by critics and his fiction is considered as a "footnote to history" and "subversion of the given."Critics have noticed the views of history and historiography embodied in Barnes’s works, but few global, systematic, penetrating and in-depth studies of Barnes’s historical writing have come into being yet. This dissertation will focus on Barnes’s postmodern historical writing, from epistemological, ontological and political points of view related to history, by way of a close reading of Barnes’s texts such as Flaubert’s Parrot, A History of the World in101/2Chapters, The Porcupine, England, England, Arthur&George and "The Revival," combining the reading strategies of Deconstructionism and New Historicism, and through drawing mainly upon hypotheses of postmodern discourse of history put forward by postmodern theorists (of history) such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Linda Hutcheon, Fredric Jameson, Jean-Francois Lyotard and those of New Historicism by such theorists as Frank Ankersmit, Keith Jenkins, Louis Montrose and Hayden White, to explore how Barnes demonstrates his postmodern view or philosophy of history explicitly or implicitly through his intertextual, deconstructive, satiric or parodic strategy of writing, to substantiate that Barnes is such a postmodern novelist whose work presents a postmodern "philosophy of history in fictional... form." Epistemologically, Barnes, through his questioning and questing for historical truth in a way of intertextual writing, foregrounds that historical writing or historiography bears the feature of textuality and fictionality; ontologically, Barnes, by his subverting and revising historical (meta)narratives in a way of deconstructive writing, stresses that history is discontinuous, fragmented and pluralistic; politically, Barnes, via his fabricating and representing contemporary and future politics-history in a way of satiric or parodic writing, highlights that history and historiography are subtly affected by political ideology and/or power relations.This dissertation consists of the Introduction, four chapters and the Conclusion. The Introduction surveys Barnes’s writing experience, major works and the literary awards he has won, and briefly reviews Barnes studies at home and abroad. The rest of the Introduction addresses Barnes’s concern for history, the preview of some of his postmodern views of history and the genesis of the study angle in this dissertation, followed by the explanation of this dissertation’s framework."Chapter One:Historical Discourse, Historical Writing and Julian Barnes" examines the transformation of historical discourse, historical writing in British fiction and Barnes’s historical consciousness, providing a theoretical and historical framework for understanding Barnes’s postmodern historical writing. This chapter first of all sorts out the transformation of historical discourse (from the speculative philosophy of history to that of analytical) in a brief way, pointing out that some grand narratives or (meta)narratives of history belong to the category of the speculative. Then it summarizes from the ontological and epistemological perspectives the main ideas of postmodern discourse of history and New Historicism, arguing that they challenge the traditional (speculative) view or philosophy of history and modes of historical writing. Its second part mentions the origin and development of the historical novel in British literature from the later18th century to the middle of the20th century and the social, historical reasons for the rise of "new historical fiction" since the1960s and its main features. Barnes’s postmodern historical writing belongs to the category of "new historical fiction." Its last part deals with Barnes’s historical consciousness (from its budding in his early novels to its maturity in his later ones), with an introduction to his postmodern view of history and historiography as its conclusion."Chapter Two:Questioning and Questing for Historical Truth" explores Barnes’s postmodern historical writing epistemologically. Barnes, through his intertextual strategy of writing and his constant questioning and questing for historical truth, foregrounds the relation of history to text(uality) and the fictive character of historical writing, contending that history could be approached merely through texts, and that historical writing, just like literary writing, relies on literary execution such as fabulation. This chapter mainly examines Barnes’s novels such as Flaubert’s Parrot and A History of the World in101/2Chapters. First of all, it points out that in Flaubert’s Parrot Barnes interprets Flaubert through various kinds of texts pertinent to Flaubert so as to construct a true image of Flaubert and in the mean time constantly queries "How do we seize the Past?" and questions the texts as historical evidence for the construction of Flaubert’s image, thus investigating the possibility of questing for historical truth, highlighting the relation of history to text(uality) and the (inter)textuality of history or historiography. Then, by way of analyzing three heterogeneous texts about a historical disaster in "Shipwreck," one "chapter" of A History of the World in101/2Chapters, and discussing the historical phenomenon in connection with this historical disaster in "The Mountain," another "chapter" of this "novel," the writing in this part intimates that Barnes’s intertextual writing discloses the subtle mediation relation of (historical) text to social processes, or the notion of "the textuality of history" in Montrose’s sense. Its second section explicates Barnes’s knowledge and practical writing of the issue of the fictionality of history. In Metahistory:The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe and other works, Hayden White argues that historical writing, like literary writing, bears the fictive character and is a "poetic process." Barnes also puts forward (through his characters) similar views about history or historiography, such as "history is merely another literary genre" and "the technical term is fabulation." This section firstly expounds Barnes’s own understanding of the view that "history is merely another literary genre," that is, history is imagined and fictionalized, especially when there is insufficient evidence for historical writing, substantiated by his practical writing in such texts as Flaubert’s Parrot and Arthur&George. It then refers to the idea of history as fiction embodied in Barnes’s Love, Etc. and A History of the World in101/2Chapters and elaborates on how Barnes from the perspectives of formal construction and content exploration writes a "chapter" of the history of the world in the latter "novel" via the literary execution of fabulation intertextually and self-reflexively, suggesting that Barnes’s writing mirrors the fictive character of history from the angle of literary writing or in the form of fictional writing."Chapter Three:Subverting and Revising Historical (Meta)Narratives" explicates Barnes’s postmodern historical writing ontologically. In an ontological sense, conventional discourse or philosophy of history maintains that history is a whole, with such characteristics as continuity, causality and totality; on the contrary, postmodern discourse or philosophy of history contends that history is discontinuous, fragmented and pluralistic. Not a few views exposed in Barnes’s postmodern historical writing have some similarities with those of postmodern discourse of history ontologically. This chapter mainly studies Barnes’s novels like Flaubert’s Parrot, A History of the World in101/2Chapters and Arthur&George. Firstly, its first section briefly explains the view of history as discontinuity put forward by Michel Foucault and Claude Levi-Strauss, then interprets the writing of the history of the world in A History of the World in101/2Chapters from such aspects as its main content, form, genre and narrative voice, pointing out that Barnes’s deconstructive writing of history breaks up the linear causality, continuity and totality in conventional history (and historiography), stressing such features of history as discontinuity and fragmentation. Secondly, this section refers to Barnes’s direct expression of interrogation about (the narrative of) progress through the voice of his characters in such texts as "Junction" and Flaubert’s Parrot, and then illuminates how Barnes in A History of the World in101/2Chapters in a way of deconstructive writing displays his interrogation and subversion of the view of progress embedded in such historical (meta)narratives as those of Darwin’s theory of evolution and Hegel’s rational History. Its second section explores the feature of historical plurality in Barnes’s postmodern historical writing. The conventional Western History often underscores Anthropocentrism and Eurocentrism, excluding the Others such as the female, the racial minority and the animal out of the vision of historical writing, displaying the feature of monism. Postmodern view of history underlines the diversity and plurality of human history and civilization, proffering some prominent positions for the Others in historical writing, which is in some sense represented in Barnes’s postmodern historical writing. This section first of all deals with, in "The Stowaway," the first "chapter" of A History of the World in101/2Chapters, Barnes’s interrogation and revision from the angle of an animal of the (hi)story of Noah’s Ark and the Deluge recorded in the Bible, laying bare Anthropocentrism implicated in the narrative of the Bible, providing a new perspective for the understanding of grand narratives such as Christian History; then a close reading of racial prejudice which brings about miscarriage of justice on a racial Other and of Barnes’s digging out and rewriting of this forgotten history in Arthur&George, indicates that Barnes’s writing unearths his deep rethinking and penetrating critique of national character and racial unconscious of the English people and the racial bias in the official writing of British history. Rewriting history from an animal’s perspective and digging out a forgotten history of a racial Other give expression to the suppressed voices in the master narratives of history, revealing Barnes’s subversion and revision of orthodox history and his potential defense for historical and racial plurality."Chapter Four:Fabricating and Representing Politics-History" examines Barnes’s thinking of the relation of politics to history and his postmodern delineation of hetero-topia worlds in the future. Leopold von Ranke’s objective history highlights the writing of history as "what actually happened," which is called "a noble dream" by later scholars. Postmodern theorists (of history) like Michel Foucault and Keith Jenkins realize that history (and historiography) is deeply affected by such factors as political ideology and/or power relations, which could be also corroborated in Barnes’s postmodern historical writing. This chapter discusses Barnes’s two political novels The Porcupine and England, England. To start with, it analyzes from the angle of the relation of history to political ideology and/or power relations how Barnes in The Porcupine suggests the influence of (political) power on history and historiography and then illustrates Barnes’s depiction of the ideological conflict in this novel through reviewing Jacques Derrida’s critique of the hypothesis of "The End of History" proposed by Francis Fukuyama so as to point out Barnes’s acute perception of the contemporary political, historical reality and.his potential critique of Fukuyama’s proposal of "The End of History." Next, this chapter turns to investigate Barnes’s writing of the political future (history) of England in England, England in its second section. Utopia is an ideal or perfect depiction of the future world, dystopia being its reversal; Barnes delineates two worlds of hetero-topia in this novel. First of all, it recounts the process of how a world of simulacra and hetero-topia named "England, England," based on the English historical heritage, is established in the Isle of Wight, a small island to the south of England, and becomes politically independent, indicating Barnes’s satirizing and critiquing of the phenomenon of commodification of history (or historical heritage) and preferring the original and authentic to the replica and fake in a postmodern society through a parody of Jean Baudrillard’s hypothesis of "the hyperreal" culture. The last part of this section makes a survey of Old England’s political fall and seclusion, its economic recession and ruin and its regression into a pre-industrial rural society,"neither idyllic nor dystopic," another world of hetero-topia, after the independence of the Isle of Wight, and intimates the paradox Old England encounters in the construction of its (historical) tradition, that is, like the hyperreal world in the Isle of Wight, Old England is also "entrapped" in the situation of blurring the boundary between reality and simulacra. Through fabrication and representation of the world of hetero-topia, Barnes’s writing explores such issues as national identity consciousness, construction of history, and their relations to national political future, implying his concern for and thinking of the political future and historical orientation of England.The Conclusion reviews the main contents of Barnes’s postmodern historical writing in light of his concern for the issue of truth, the paradox or "shortcomings" implied in his writing, then makes a brief comparison of his historical writing with those of other contemporary British writers to highlight his peculiarity in formal experimentation. It addresses in the end some possible perspectives for the study of Barnes to arouse more interest in this writer. All in all, Julian Barnes is a postmodern writer with a profound awareness of rethinking and strong spirit of critique, and his postmodern historical writing, bearing a distinctive feature of deconstruction, subverts "the given" notions about history and historiography, making a postmodern "footnote to [conventional] history" and historiography, presenting a postmodern philosophy of history in the form of fictional writing, thus proffering very good texts for the study of literature (and even history) from the angle of postmodern discourse or philosophy of history. |
PDF Full Text Request